In the following scene Mrs Johnstone tells Mrs Lyons that she is expecting twins, Mrs Lyons has been trying for a child and would desperately want one but has been unable to, when she finds out that Mrs Johnstone is expecting twins and she knows that Mrs Johnstone is struggling to support her family she wants one of her babies. Mrs Johnstone reluctantly agrees, as she knows that she cannot afford to look after it, the child would have a better upbringing in Mrs Lyons household and she could accept some money off Mrs Lyons. The next incidence of superstition happens here with Mrs Lyons making Mrs Johnstone swear on the bible that she cannot tell anybody about their deal, Mrs Lyons says “Mrs J, no one must ever know. Therefore we have to have an agreement.” A song follows this scene and then in the next scene Mrs Lyons creates the superstition that could be the reason for Mickey and Edward’s deaths. Mrs Lyons threatens Mrs Johnstone in the one way that she thinks Mrs Johnstone will never let out this secret because she knows that Mrs Johnstone is superstitious after the shoes were placed on the table. Mrs Lyons says, “They say…they say that if either twin learns that he was once a pair, they shall both immediately die.” Even though this superstition is made up the consequences of it are true and the narrator asks the title question to the audience because they already know that the twins will die from the beginning of the play so he is asking them whether they believe this superstition could be responsible for their deaths or whether it could be something else. The question of whether Mrs Lyons is to be blame for creating this superstition could also be asked. The song called “Shoes upon the table…” follows this and an atmosphere is created. This will keep the audience waiting to find out how they die so that they can make a judgement on whether superstition is to blame.
These are the two main sources of superstition affecting the outcome of the play and they both affect Mrs Johnstone who is the only character who believes in superstition, she has twins unexpectedly and then they die both connected to superstition.
There are other incidences of superstition happening though which are connected throughout the play these are the links of the number seven. At the beginning of the play Mrs Johnstone has seven children, the gaps within the play are seven years long and Mickey is sentenced to seven years because of an armed robbery. The number seven occurring in these places could be linked to the seven deadly sins which could be connected to the deaths of Mickey and Edward.
The other reason that Willy Russell suggests responsible for the deaths of Mickey and Edward is class. The class divide is between Mrs Johnstone’s family and Mr and Mrs Lyons. Mrs Johnstone’s family are working class, they are struggling financially as we can tell from the beginning when the milkman comes and refuses to deliver the milk because she has failed to pay for weeks, meanwhile the children are complaining that they are starving. Mr and Mrs Lyons are much richer than Mrs Johnstone, Mr Lyons is a businessman who works frequently they have everything they want except a baby.
It is the differences in class that make us like Mrs Johnstone more than Mrs Lyons. The audience prefers Mrs Johnstone because they will have sympathy for her not being able to cope with seven children and her husband has left her so they will side with her more than Mrs Lyons. Later in the story we see that Mrs Johnstone’s relationship with Edward is better than his with Mrs Lyons, this asks if the reason Mrs Lyons could never have children is because she was destined to be a bad mother. Willy Russell makes the working class look like better people compared to middle class, I think this because he came from a working class family and he may never have liked the middle class people that he met.
There is an important part in the play when Mrs Lyons tells Edward to stay away from the lower class, she looks down upon Mickey and does not want Edward growing up like him. Edward uses some rude vocabulary which Mickey said earlier, Mrs Lyons replies “You learn filth from them and behave like this like a, like a horrible little boy, like them.” She refers to the lower class as ‘them’, this may suggest she does not regard the lower class as being respectable people and they are much different from her. After this she says, “You are my son, mine…” this is some dramatic irony which underpins that Edward is not really her son and that he would fit more appropriately in Mrs Johnstone’s family. This is the second time we see Mrs Lyons as a mother, the first time the Edward is just a baby in a cot, Mrs Johnstone goes to pick him up as he is crying but Mrs Lyons stops her and says, “If he needs picking up, I shall pick him up. All right?” In my opinion she has been a bad mother in both cases so her not being able to have a baby justifies that maybe she could not because she was destined to be a bad mother.
There is another incidence that shows bias due to someone’s status. When Mickey, Edward and Linda are caught by a policeman throwing stones the officer takes them back to their homes, at Mickey’s house his tone is angry and he tells Mrs Johnstone to look after her son better. When he arrives at Edward’s he is much more casual about the situation and he does not mind because Mr Lyons is a more important person in the society. The policeman threatens Mrs Johnstone, “You don’t wanna end up in court again, do y’?”
With Mr Lyons he says, “I’m not sure I’d let him mix with the likes of them in the future. Make sure he keeps with his own kind, Mr Lyons.” The policeman tells us that there is a definite divide in class when he says ‘own kind’. This shows how class is an important aspect in this story if a policeman who is someone who should be setting an example to the society is being unfair to someone because of their status.
When they are older they can understand how their lives have grown apart due to class. Edward has been able to get a good education and a descent job. Mickey has had the opposite, he cannot afford his baby and he eventually goes unemployed, this drives him towards the robbery and later towards the argument with Edward. Edward is oblivious to what Mickey has been going through because Edward has always had everything that he has needed.
If the reason for Mickey and Edward’s deaths was because of superstition you could say that they have been very unlucky because a series of far-fetched coincidences occur throughout the play. These are that Mr Lyons is coming home just after the baby is expected to be born; they both move into the same neighbourhood by chance; when Edward is shot the text says that the gun exploded. Instead of saying that superstition is responsible for their deaths you could say that it was simply their fate, this can link up with when Linda says, “When you die you’ll meet your twinny again, won’t y’?” Back then Mickey was told that his twin died at birth but what Linda says is true because it is just as he dies that he has found out whom his twin is that he thought was dead. It is also coincidental that all of the bad luck happens to the lower class. They cannot get employment and when Mickey eventually loses his job Linda is pregnant at the time, Mickey also has bad luck that he was the twin who was not given the same opportunities as Edward. In the final scene when it is revealed that they are twins he says, “Why didn’t you give me away! I could have been… I could have been him!” Even though it is chance that Mickey was not taken away and that Edward is I believe that it is class that makes him so angry here because if Mickey would have had an equal upbringing to Edward’s they would have nothing to argue about. It is that Mickey is jealous of Edward for the reasons that Edward has a job, money and in the final stages he has Linda that drives apart the friendship they once had. The majority of the bad luck involved in the play revolves around the lower class, I believe that Willy Russell is making a statement that the lower class deserve more and that they are treated unfairly in society.
From this I can conclude that class is responsible for the deaths of Mickey and Edward. If both families were lower class or if both families were middle class Mickey and Edward would not have died. When they are young it does not matter to them that they are from different types of homes, it is their parents who are telling them to stay away from each other and to stick to their own kind as the policeman says. It is only when they grow older and they have more responsibilities that they become to realise how different they are from each other. Mickey’s jealousy is what makes him want to kill Edward, if Edward did not have a job Mickey would not have had a reason to despise him, the same applies to if Mickey would have had a job then they would have been on equal terms and probably still being friends. In the play there are definitely some circumstances which are unlikely and would not normally happen. Willy Russell suggests that superstition is a possible option of explaining why they died but superstitions do not always come true and the one that kills Mickey and Edward allegedly is made up by Mrs Lyons and there is no evidence that this superstition has came true anywhere else. I think that Willy Russell asks whether superstition is responsible for their deaths because he does not want to say that class is the reason for their deaths because it would look like he is directly blaming people from being in different classes. Therefore class is the reason for their deaths as it drives apart their friendship because of their differences.